BITS & PIECES

Openers:  

You

Your fluttering eyelids are mouths, mouths that talk too fast because they are lying.  You press your palms into your eyes to slow the lids down, to shut them the hell up.

While hidden within a brief, warm respite of darkness, a muttering, mumbling discussion percolates.  You drift in their sea of sibilants and plosives that form old. forgotten words, until someone rises above the frothing fray, asking, "What are the signs?"

You -- yes, you are you for the duration of this, whatever this is -- roll the stones in your hands away from your eyes.

A man, dressed in a red tracksuit with a white, orderly zipper splitting his chest, sits in a creaking wooden chair.  If the room is a sundial, then the complaining chair is a gnomon.  This room is a living room belonging to a modest house, a house that is unfamiliar to you, but you are not weighted by an oppressive feeling of unfamiliarity.  The living room is ill-lit and dank and the plaster walls a beige shade no one would purposefully choose.  Pitted Styrofoam tiles chessboard the ceiling, tattered woven throw rug spills across the hardwood floor.  A collection of out-of-date furniture molders in the areas where shadows are thickest, and the pieces swap positions withing the room whenever you blink.

-- Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep  by Paul Tremblay  (2026)

The book's title, as Ian Mond stated in Locus, "pays attention to the themes that Philip K. Dick made his own:  conflicted identities, altered consciousness, fractured realities."

Julia Flang, a semi-professional gamer estranged from her high-powered tech CEO mother and struggling to work two menial jobs, is hired for a tech job with a pay that is difficult to refuse -- she must chaperone a man in a vegetative state from California to the East Coast.  The catch is that the man is dead -- well, mostly dead -- and has been implanted with an AI chip in his brain that will allow him to function physically or sorts.  The nameless victim had died of a stroke and was brain dead, his movements now controlled by an experimental handheld gaming control device.  To test the chip and the device, Julia is selected to take Bernie (Julia's name for the man, from Weekend at Bernie's) on this initial journey.  As the novel progresses, Bernie changes, but are the changes due to the AI chip teaching itself or to something that is happening in Bernie's brain-dead cortex?

The boom is divided into sections, one covering Julia and her journey, the other -- title You -- takes us inside the maybe-dead, maybe-mostly dead, maybe AI trying to access Bernie's brain -- a mad kaleidoscope of memory, fantasy, fear, allegory, confusion, phobia, imagination, terror, and glimmerings of what may really be happening, all trying to make sense of the world both around and within Bernie.  These Bernie sections are difficult plodding at first, but as awareness grows within Bernie, so does it also within the reader.

 At the novel's core is the dread feeling that this new technology will be used in the worst possible way, but the reader learns to cheer Julia and Bernie on with the hope that they will prevail.

Not an easy read but an important one.  This is Tremblay's twelfth novel and with each book he has ventured into newer and more rewarding territory.

 Incoming:

• The Adams Round Table, Murder Among Friends.  Mystery collection with eleven stories.  The Adams Round Table, mystery fiction's answer to the Algonquin Round Table, was founded in 1982 by Mary Higgins Clark and Thomas Chastain, meeting every month to discuss their craft.  This was the sixth anthology the group published.  Authors are Lawrence Block, Mary Higgins Clark, Stanley Cohen, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Mickey Friedman, Susan Isaacs, Judith Kelman, Warren Murphy, Justin Scott, Peter Straub, and Whitley Strieber.  It is bit disturbing to know how many of these fine authors have left us.
• Kingsley Amis, The Russian Girl.  Mainstream novel.  "Richard Vaisey is a respected scholar specializing in Russian studies when Anna Danilova arrives on campus.  A visiting Russian poet with a mission more than literacy, Anna challenges his integrity -- and his marriage.  Richard's beautiful but unspeakably monstrous wife, Cordelia, seeks revenge on her adulterous husband, determined to ruin him by cancelling his credit cards and reporting his car as stolen to the police.  But Richard must face further humiliating consequences, for the seductive Anna is also an irremediably bad poet.  "A captivating battle of the sexes and the conflicting claims of love and integrity -- and a pointed satire on art, literature, political correctness, and the gender wall -- The Russian Girl is vintage Kingsley Amis:  entertaining, thought-provoking and wittily wise."   
• Clive Barker, Coldheart Canyon.  Literary horror novel.  "Hollywood has made a star of Todd Pickett.  But time is catching up with him.  He doesn't have the perfect looks he had last year.  After plastic surgery goes awry, Todd needs somewhere to hide away for a few months while his scars heal.  As Todd settles into a mansion in Coldheart Canyon -- a corner of the city so secret it doesn't appear on any map -- Tammy Lauper, the president of his fan club, comes to the City of Angels determined to solve the mystery of Todd's disappearance.  Her journey will not be an easy one.  The closer she gets to Todd the more of Coldheart Canyon's secrets she uncovers:  the ghosts of the A-list stars who came to the  Canyon for wild parties; Katya Lupi, the cold-hearted, now-forgotten star for whom the Canyon is named, who is alive and exquisite after a hundred years; and, finally, the door in the bowels of Katya's dream palace that reputedly open up to another world, the Devil's Country. 
• Laird Barron, The Wind Began to Howl.  Mystery with possible supernatural elements, featuring P.I. Isaiah Coleridge, an "all-new story set after the events of Worse Angels.  A seemingly benign case gradually pulls mob enforcer-turned-P.I. Isaiah Coleridge into a chilling mix of music, movie magic, and madness.  This time, Coleridge's dark journey forces him to confront a brutal truth:  For some who try to escape the past, there is no way out."
• John Bingham, Five Roundabouts to Heaven.  The classic crime novel.  " 'Death is of no consequence -- it is not dying that matters, it's how you die.'  Nineteen years is a long time.  But when Pete and Barry meet up again in the idyllic French landscape of their youth, the old rivalry is still there.  So are their shared secrets.  And the passion and jealously still hang in the air, ready to ignite should the  right mischance arise.   John Bingham's second novel is a powerful study of how murder can enter the minds of ordinary people."   Bingham, the 7th Baron Clanmorris, was a one-time MI5 counterspy who was one of two models for John le Carre's George Smiley. 
• James Blaylock, The Aylesford Skull.  A Langdon St. Ives steampunk fantasy.  "It is the summer of 1883 and Profressor Langdon St, Ives, brilliant but eccentric scientist and explorer, is at home in Aylesford with his family.  A few miles to the north a steam launch has been taken by pirates above Egypt Bay, the crew murdered and pitched overboard.  In Aylesford itself a grave is opened and possibly robbed of the skull.  The suspected grave robber, the infamous Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, is an old nemesis of Langdon St. Ives.  When Dr. Narbondo returns to kidnap his four-year-old son Eddie and then vanishes into the night, St. Ives and his factotum Hasbro race into London in pursuit..."
• Dorothy Bowers, Deed Without a Name and Fear and Miss Betony.  Two Golden Age mysteries featuring Scotland Yard Inspector Dan Pardoe.  Deed:  "Three times young Archy Mitford escaped  murderous attacks.  Knowing then identity of his would-be killer and anticipating further attempts, he contrived to leave behind clues that would lead Scotland Yard to his killer's doorstep.  Or course Archy thought himself clever enough to avoid actually being murdered and assumed these clue -- mostly bird sketches -- would never actually be needed.  Archy was wrong.  Unfortunately for Inspector Dan Pardoe and Sergeant Tommy Salt, Archy's clues were so obscure that they defied interpretation.  Word Was II was only weeks away and it looks like Archy's brief flirtation with the pro-Nazi Nordic Bond might be behind his murder.  Anti-German feelings were at their height during this 'phony war' period as Londoners blacked out their windows to German bombers that  were months aways from attacking.  On the other hand, Archy's death also seemed somehow connected to the disappearance of a camera-shy British philanthropist.  It will take all of Pardoe's celebrated ingenuity to nab the killer."  Fear:  "Emma Betony was content to live out her remaining years in a home for decayed gentlewomen when she receives an urgent appeal for help from a former student.  Grace Aram is running Makeways, a struggling boarding school for girls, newly relocated in a former nursing home in Dorset far from the falling German bombs.  But Grace isn't interested in Mis Betony's teaching skills.  She needs someone she can trust to expose the culprit behind a series of troubling events, including the possible poisoning of one of the two remaining nursing patients.  What Mis Betony finds is an overwhelming sense of fear on the part of the Makeway's inhabitants.  Miss Betony follows a series of clues that eventually led her to The Great Ambrosio, a charismatic, extremely handsome fortune teller with more than on trick up his sleeve.  First published in 1941, Fear and Mis Betony marks the final appearance of Inspector Dan Pardoe.  But it is Miss Betony herself who fights through fear and solves the case."
• Pamela Branch, Murder's Little Sister.  "A comedy of murder and mismanners," which American mystery writer Carolyn Hart listed among her five favorite mysteries of all time.  "Short-tempered Enid Marley has a foolproof system for answering questions from the many fans of her advice column in You magazine, but she has no  sense at all when it comes to solving her own problems.  When her latest  husband strays, she decides to get his attention with a fake suicide attempt, but he plan misfires horribly.  While she's teetering on the window ledge outside her office waiting to be noticed, hands reach out for her, causing her to lose her balance and fall.  She survives, thanks to a well-placed awning and an unfortunate passer-by, leaving everyone to debate if it was Suicide, Murder, or Misadventure.  In her absence, an unemployed ballet dancer named Rex is hired to fill in for her, making a hopeless hash of her system and sending alarmingly wrong advice to many readers, who eventually join forces to wreak vengeance on You.  Meanwhile, Inspector Willis searches for an escaped killer while little Doctor Felz, one of Enid's colleagues, lives in fear that his past will catch up with him and Kidder, a hard-drinking crime reporter, takes up residence in the lift.  Equal parts satire and farce, it's the last of four hilarious crime novels from a brilliant writer whose career was cut short by her untimely death."
• Fred Chappell, I Am One of You Forever.   Southern novel.  "Fred Chappell's I Am One of You Forever is a perfect balance of fantasy, tall tale, and fact.  Written in extraordinarily lucid prose, this novel describes the experiences of a boy growing up in North Carolina in the 1940s.  Through a series of family vignettes that circle a central; unspoken tragedy, Chappell co bines dramatic and lyrical talents to produce as high-spirited elegy.  Among living Southern writers, only Eudora Welty has this range of tone." -- Thomas Carlson, Southern Magazine.
• Loren D. Estleman, The Hours of the Virgin.  The thirteenth Amos Walker private eye novel.  "An art expert hires Walker to ride shotgun involving a priceless illuminated manuscript called the Hours of the Virgin.  But when the deal goes down in a porn movie house, so does a hit.  Suddenly Walker is searching for not just some pricey old paper but a gun that could put his former partner's murderer behind bars.  In prose that sails like a Detroit muscle car, Loren Estleman takes us for a wild drive -- proving that in a field crowded with poseurs, amateurs, and virgins, he's the real deal."
• Christopher Fowler, Full Dark House.  The first Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery featuring Bryant and May.  "A bomb rips through present-day London, tragically ending the crime-fighting partnership of Arthur Bryant and John May begun more than a half-century ago during another infamous bombing:  the Blitz of World War II.  Desperately searching for clues to this saboteur's identity, May finds  the notes his old friend kept of their very first case and a past that may have returned...with murderous vengeance.  It was an investigation that began with the grisly murder of a pretty young dancer.  In a city shaken by fear, a faceless killer stalked London's theater row, creating his own sinister drama.  And it would take Bryant's unorthodox techniques and May's dogged police work to catch a fiend whose ability to escape  detection seemed almost supernatural -- a murderer who decades later may have returned to kill one of them...and won't stop until he kills the other,"  This one won the 2004 August Derleth Best Fantasy Award.
• Phil Hardy, editor, The BFI Companion to Crime.  An encyclopedic look at crime films, listed alphabetically from A bout de souffle (Breathless) to the 1974 Polish film Zapis zbrodni (Chronology of a Crime)  -- over 500 international films are covered and I will never live long enough to see them all.
• Libby Fischer Hellman, editor, Chicago Blues.  Anthology of 21 stories, many original, about crime in Chicago.  Authors are:  Stuart M. Kaminsky, Kevin Guilfoile, Libby Fischer Hellman, Jack Frederickson, Sara Paretsky, "Kris Nelscott," JA Konrath, Sean Chercover, Max Allan Collins, Michael Black, Steven B. Mandel, David J. Walker,  Michael Allen Dymmoch, Sam Reaves, D.C. Brod, Mary V. Welk, Sam Hill, Marcus Sakey, Ronald Levitsky, Bfian Pinkerton, and Barbara D'Amato.  Singed by the editor.
• Charlie Huston, A Dangerous Man.  A Henry Thompson crime novel.  "Reluctant hitman Henry Thompson has fallen on hard times.  His grip on life is disintegrating, his pistol hand shaking, his body pinned to his living room couch by painkillers -- and his boss, Russian mobster David Dolokhov, isn't happy about any of it.  So Henry is surprised when he's handed a new assignment:  keep tabs on a minor league baseball star named Miguel Arenas.  Henry has no pity for the slugger and the wicked gambling problem that got him in trouble, but he can't help liking the guy.  After all, Henry used to be just like him:  a natural-born ball player with a bright future.  But hell, that was long ago.   Before Henry did some guy a favor and ended up running for his life.  Before his girlfriend and buddies got gunned down by someone on his tail.  Before he agreed to buy his parents' safety with a life of violence.  And when Miguel gets drafted by the Mets and is sent to the Brooklyn Cyclones, Henry must head back to New York, back to the place where all his problems began -- and where Henry might find a real reason to keep living, a reason that may just cost him his life."
• Jonathan Letham, The Feral Detective.  2018 detective novel, Letham's first since 1999's Motherless Brooklyn.   "Phoebe Siegler first meets Charles Heist in a strip mall office on the eastern edge of Los Angeles.  She's looking for her friend's missing daughter, Arabella, and hires Heist as a guide.  A laconic loner who keeps a recue opossum in a desk drawer, Heist intrigues the sarcastic and garrulous Phoebe. Reluctantly, he agrees to help.  The unlikely pair navigate the enclaves of desert-dwelling vagabonds and find that Arabella is in serious trouble -- caught in the  middle of a violent standoff that only Heist, mysteriously, can end.  Phoebe's trip to the desert was always going to be strange, but it was never supposed to be dangerous..."  
• Charlotte MacLeod, editor,  Christmas Stalkings and Mistletoe Mysteries.  Two holiday themed original anthologies.  The first has thirteen stories by Robert Barnard, Dorothy Cannell, Bill Crider, Mickey Friedman, Reginald Hill, Charlotte MacLeod, John Malcolm, Margaret Maron, Patricia Noyes, Elizabeth Peters, Medora Sale, Evelyn E. Smith, and Eric Wright.  The second has fifteen stories by Isaac Asimov, Mary Higgins Clark, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Susan Dunlap, Aaron Elkins, Howard Engel, Edward D. Hoch, Peter Lovesey, John Lutz, Charlotte MacLeod, Sharyn McCrumb, Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini, Henry Slesar, and Eric Wright.  All-star line-ups both.
• Louise Penny, A Rule Against Murder.  A Chief Inspector Gamache mystery.  "It's the height of summer, and the wealthy Finney family have gathered at the Manoir Bellechasse to pay tribute to their late father.  But as the temperature rises, old secrets and bitter rivalries begin to surface.  When the heat wave boils over into a mighty storm, a dead body is left in its wake.  Chief Inspector Gamache, a guest at the Bellechasse, finds himself with  building full of suspects.  With the hotel locked down, the murderer is trapped.  But a cornered predator is always the most dangerous of all..."
• Douglas Preston, Blasphemy and Tyrannosaur Canyon, plus The Lost City of the Monkey God and The Lost Tomb and Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder.  I've been on a kick of the thrillers Preston has written with Lincoln Child and was able to come across these two fiction and two nonfiction books by Preston solo.  Blasphemy:  The world's biggest supercollider, hidden deep in an Arizona  mountain, will  probe what happened at the very moment of creation:  the Big Bang itself.  The brainchild of Noble Laureate Gregory North Hazelius, Isabella is the most expensive machine ever built.  Will it unlock the mysteries of the universe?  Will it, as some warn, suck the earth into a mini black hole?  Or is it, as the powerful evangelist Reverend Don T. Spates thunders, a Satanic attempt to disprove Genesis and challenge God Almighty on the very throne of heaven?  The day is looming when Hazelius and his team of twelve scientists will turn on Isabella...and what they will then discover must be hidden from the world at all costs.  The entire world is holding it breath.  Wyman Ford, ex-monk and CIA operative, is tapped by the U.S. government to wrest from the team their secret, a secret that will ither destroy the world...or save it.  The countdown begins..."  Wyman Ford went on to appear in two additional novels from Preston and was on of the man in characters in the earlier Tyrannosaur Canyon, Speaking of which, Tyrannosaur:  "A moon rock missing for thirty years...Five buckets of blood-soaked sand found in a New Mexico canyon...A scientist with ambition enough to kill... A monk who will redeem the world...A dark agency with a deadly mission...The greatest scientific discovery of all time...What fire bolt from the galactic dark shattered the Earth eons ago, and now hides in that remote cleft in the southwest United States known as...TYRANNOSAUR CANYON?"  And the nonfiction... Monkey God:  "Since the days of conquistador Hernan Cortes, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God.  Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die.  In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost city of the Monkey Go -- but then committed suicide without revealing its location.  Three quarters of a century later, bestselling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a new quest.  In 2012 he climbed aboard a rickety plane carrying the machine that would change everything:  lidar, a highly advanced technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy.  In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, that flight revealed the image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization.  Venturing into this treacherous but breathtaking wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes.  But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck:  Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal -- and incurable -- disease."  Tomb:  Thirteen articles about true crime and the mysterious, divided into five sections:  Uncommon Murders, Unexplained Deaths, Unsolved Mysteries, Uncommon Crimes, and Old Bones.  Includes the original article "The Monster of Florence," which Preston later expanded into a bestselling book with Marion Spezi.
• Speaking of the devil(s), Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Thunderhead, an early standalone novel which introduces Nora Kelly to the Preston-Child universe.  "Archaeologist Nora Kelly is adrift in her career and her personal life when a violent, unexpected incident leaves her in possession of a mysterious letter.  Written  by her father, who vanished sixteen years ago in the remote desert, the letter reveals the location of a legendary site hidden in the redrock canyon country of southern Utah:  Quivira, the Anasazi Indians' wondrous lost city of gold.  Convinced that her father has truly found Quivira, Nora puts together an expedition and takes a team up Lake Powell to the  mouth of Serpentine Canyon.  In the stark labyrinth of canyons and slickrock desert she will find her deepest nightmares.  For hidden in the shadows of the sunbaked cliffs are untold treasures, the solution to the greatest riddle of American archaeology -- and implacable, suffocating death.  From the colossal fury of a savage desert storm to sunlight penetrating a mass grave for the first time in a thousand years, [the book] becomes an epic tale of discovery, human deceit, and a desperate struggle for survival in a place that has guarded its extraordinary secrets for centuries -- and will not give them up without a devasting fight." Kelly went on to become a major character in several books in the authors' Pendergast series and eventually starred in her own series of five (thus for) novels.  Moving on, we have Still Life with Crows, The Book of the Dead, and Verses for the Dead, three Special Agent Aloysius X. L. Pendergast thrillers.  Crows:  "Medicine Creek, Kansas.  In a town where nothing changes, where Main Street is a two-block stretch of old and dusty businesses, a ghastly murder has taken place.  The unknown victim has been placed in a small clearing in a sea of corn, mutilated and arranged in an elaborate tableau.  within twenty-four hours the sheriff is assuring a flood of reporters and tense residents that this is an isolated death -- until Special Agent Pendergast arrives in the stifling August heat to declare it the work of a serial killer.  Soon neighbors begin to disappear -- only to reappear as the lifeless centerpieces of unspeakable displays.  Convulsed with terror, the townsfolk whisper of the legendary Curse of the Forty-fives.  No one is safe from a killer who stalks his prey in the blackness of night...and whose grotesque crimes are revealed by circling buzzards under the cruel summer sun.  With the help of Corrie Swanson, an eighteen-year-old misfit, Pendergast unearths the secrets of this isolated town -- from the dark histories of its inhabitants to the darker mysteries hidden in the endless cornfields.  And ultimately, as he unravels the local curse and the truth of Medicine Creek's greatest enigma, the Ghost Warrior Massacre of 1865, Pendergast comes face-to-face with the unimaginable evil that lies at the heart of this small town."  Corrie Swanson will become a main figure in Preston and Child's Nora Kelly series (see below), while Kelly herself had a role in the previous Pendergast novel, The Cabinet of Curiosities.  Book:  The third volume in the Diogenes trilogy within th Pendergast series.  "An FBI agent, rotting away in a high-security prison for  murder he did not commit...His brilliant, psychotic brother, about to perpetrate a horrific crime...A young woman with an extraordinary past, on the edge of a violent breakdown...An ancient Egyptian tomb with an enigmatic curse, about to be unveiled at a celebrity-studded  New York gala..."  Verses:  "After an overhaul of leadership at the FBI's New York Field Office, A.X.L. Pendergast is abruptly forced to accept an unthinkable condition of continued employment:  the famously rogue agent must now work with a partner.  Pendergast and his new teammate, junior agent Coldmoon, are assigned to Miami  Beach, where a rash of killings by a bloodthirsty psychopath is distinguished by a confounding M.O.:  cutting out the hearts of his victims and leaving them -- along with cryptic handwritten letters -- at local graveyards, unconnected except for one bizarre detail:  all belong to women who committed suicide.  For the seeming lack of connection between the suicides and the new murders is the least of Pendergast's worries.  As he digs deeper, he realizes the brutal new crimes may just be the tip of the iceberg:  a conspiracy of death that reaches back decades."  Also, The Scorpion's Tale and Dead Mountain, the second and fourth novels in the Nora Kelly series.  Scorpion:  "A mummified corpse, over half a century old, is found in the cellar of an abandoned building in a remote New Mexico ghost town,  Junior FBI Agent Corrie Swanson [told ya -- JH] is assigned to ID the body and determine the cause of death, and brings in archaeologist Nora Kelly to excavate the body and lend her expertise to the investigation.  Together they uncover something unexpected and shocking:  the deceased apparently died in agony, in a fetal position, skin coming off in sheets, a rictus of horror frozen on his face.  Hidden on the corpse lies a sixteenth century Spanish gold cross of immense value.  When they at last identify the body -- and the bizarre cause of death -- Corrie and Nora open a door to a terrifying, secret world of ancient treasure and modern obsession:  a world centered on one of the most defining, frightening, and transformative moments in American history."  Mountain:  "In 2008, nine mountaineers failed to return from a winter backpacking trip in the New Mexico mountains.  At their final campsite, searchers found a bizarre scene:  something had appeared at the door of their tent so terrifying that it impelled them to slash their way out and flee barefoot to certain death in a blizzard.  Despite a diligent search, only six bodies were found, two violently crushed and inexplicably missing their eyes.  The case, given the code name 'Dead Mountain' by the FBI, was never solved.  Now, two more bodies from the lost expedition are unexpectedly discovered in a cave, one a grisly suicide.  Young FBI Agent Corrie Swanson teams up with archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate what really happened on that fateful trip fifteen years ago -- and to find the ninth vistim.  But their search awakens a long-slumbering evil, which pursues Corrie and Nora with a vengeance, determined to prevent the final missing corpse from ever coming to light."
• J. D. Rhoades, Good Day in Hell.  A Jack Keller thriller.  "Bail enforcement officer Jack Keller is doing a skip trace on a young woman from the right side of the tracks who somehow got involved with the wrong kind of man.  But Laurel Marks's history doesn't matter to Jack -- she's wanted on a parole violation, and his paycheck depends on his tracking her down.  Meanwhile, Keller's girlfriend, sheriff's deputy Marie Jones, is called to the scene of a grisly murder -- a gas station owner has been shot point-blank in the face, and his teenage stepson, plus the cash from the register, are missing.  But something in the back of her mind tells Marie not to jump to conclusions...   When a bloody, merciless killing spree starts in a church on the other side of the county, it seems impossible that Keller's skip and Marie's murder/kidnapping case could be related.  But the local media are soon involved, and the mess they make of the situation soon reveals what Keller, Marie, and every other police officer in the state of North Carolinaa doesn't want to believe:  three people are viciously angry, incredibly well armed, and they're ready to strike at any time." 
• John Saul, The Manhattan Hunt Club.  Suspense novel.  "The promising future of New York City College student Jeff Converse has suddenly been shattered by a nightmarish turn of events.  Falsely convicted of a brutal crime, Jeff sees his life vanishing before his eyes.  But someone has other plans for Jeff in a far deadlier place than any penitentiary.  He finds himself beneath the teeming streets of Manhattan, in a hidden landscape of twisting tunnels and forgotten subterranean chambers.  Here, an invisible population of the homeless, the desperate, and the mad has carved out its own shadow society.  But they are not alone,  The pitch-dark tunnels and abandoned subway stations are haunted by the unmistakable sounds of predators in search of game.  Someone has made this forsaken civilization beneath a city a private killing ground...and the hunt is on."
• Jim Thompson, Heed the Thunder.  Crime novel, Thompson's second book.  "Old Lincoln Fargo has spent his life engaging in almost every vice imaginable -- and his only regret is that he once stole a horse.  His son Grant, a shiftless dandy with a resemblance to Edgar Allan Poe, is conducting an affair with is voluptuous and volatile cousin.  And behind everyone's back, Grandmother Pearl has just signed the family property over to the almighty.  In the literature of the American prairie, few families are as brawling, as benighted, or as outrageously vital as the Fargos of Verdon, Nebraska.  And when Jim Thompson chronicles their life and times, the result suggest Willa Cather steeped in rotgut -- and armed with a .45."
• Robert Weinberg, editor, The Louis L'Amour Companion.  Nonfiction, a collection of more than fifty articles, listings, and interviews with the bestselling western author.  Contributors include Walter M. Tompkins, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Jon Tuska, Harlan Ellison, Robert Sampson, Scott A. Cupp, Ed Gorman, and the interview team of Lawrence Davidson, Richard Lupoff, and Richard Wolinsky.  Everything you ever wanted to know and then some about L'Amour and his writing.
• Thomas Wheeler, Cursed.  Arthurian fantasy novel, illustrated by comic book great Frank Miller.  "Whosoever wields the sword of power shall be the one true King,  But what if the sword has chosen a Queen?  Nimue grew up an outcast.  Her connection to dark magic made her something to be feared in her Druid village, and that made her desperate to leave...  That is, until Red Paladins slaughter her entire village, and Nimue's fate is forever altered.  Charged by her dying mother to reunite an ancient sword with a legendary sorcerer, Nimue is now her people's only hope.  Her mission leaves little room for revenge, but the growing power within her can think of nothing else.  Nimue teams up with a charming mercenary named Arthur and refugee Fey Folk from across England.  She wields a sword meant for the one true king, and battles paladins and the armies of a corrupt ruler.  She struggles to unite her people, avenge her family, and discover the truth about her destiny.  And perhaps the one thing that can change destiny itself is found at thesas edge of a blade."  Wheeler and Miller were co-creators of the 2020 Netflix television series based on this book.

Doris Miller:  Then upcoming Gerald R. Ford-class supercarrier USS Doris Miller (CVN-81) was designated to be the first aircraft carrier named for an African-American and an enlisted man, Cook Petty Officer First Class Doris ("Dorrie") Miller.  Miller, then a Mess Attendant Second Class, was serving on the battleship USS West Virginia when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  He first helped carry wounded sailors to safety and then manned an anti-aircraft gun -- despite having no training in gunnery -- and was officially commended for shooting down one plane, although Miller and a number of eyewitnesses said the true count was between four and six. 

On January 1, 1942, the Navy released a list of commendations for actions during the December 7 attack --   among them was a recommendation for an "unnamed Black man."  The NAACP asked President Roosevelt to award the Distinguished Service Award to the unknown Black sailor.  On March 12, the Associated Press identified the man as Miller.  He was the first African-American ever to receive the Navy Cross; it was given to him on May 27, 1942 by Admiral Chester Nimitz.  But many sailors and officers felt that Miller's heroism was worthy of a Congressional Medal of Honor; then-Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox was a vocal opponent against Black sailors serving in the United States of having any combat role -- no Black service member was awarded the Medal of Honor between 1941 and 1945. (Army First Lieutenant Vernon Baker was the only Black recipient of the Medal of Honor while he was still alive; he received the Medal in 1997 for his actions in 1945 near Viareggio, Italy.)  Despite efforts to have Miller award the Medal of Honor, nothing official has happened to date, although there are hints that the ward my be in the offing.

There are also stories that the Navy may rescind naming the aircraft carrier for Miller in  favor of naming it for Donald Trump -- nothing official, but the story smacks of a trial balloon sent out by the current Administration.  Our current president has a long record of disparaging our service members and callously placing them in harm's way while at the same time bloviating his own reputation.  If there is any truth to this story, it would be a stain on our country and the men and women who serve it.

To date, there have been nine U.S. Navy ships named in honor of African Americans:

• USS Harmon (DE-678) launched in 1943 to honor Mess Attendant First Class Leroy Roy Harmon, who died in action at age 25 at Guadalcanal and was a posthumous recipient of the Navy Cross
• USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656), a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine named for the fanous scientist and inventor
• USS Jesse L. Brown (DD-1089), named for the first African-American naval aviator in the U.S. Navy
• USS Miller (FF-1091), a Knox-class destroyer escort was named for Doris Miller and commissioned in 1973; in 1975 she was reclassified as a frigate, then decommissioned in 1991, transferred to Turkey as a hulk in 1999 and sunk as a target in a Turkish naval exercise two years later
• USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG-60) an Oliver Hazzard Perry-class guided missile frigate named for a marine sergeant posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in the Vietnam War
• USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer named for a marine PFC who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in the Vietnam War
• USS Pinckney (DDG-91) an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer named for Cook First Class William Pinckney, who received the Navy Cross for rescuing a shipmate during World War II; Pinckney was the second African-American ever to be awarded the Navy Cross

May we as a nation and as citizens continue to pay tribute those men and women, many of whom are unsung, who have given so much for our country.

Today's Joke:  The owner of a drugstore shows up to work one day to find a man leaning against the wall with a terrible look on his face. 

He asks his clerk, "What's with the guy over there leaning on the wall?"

"Well" the clerk said, "He came in about 7:00 this morning and wanted something for his bad cough.  I looked around and couldn't find any cough medicine so I gave him some laxatives."

"You what!" exploded the owner.  "You can't treat a clough with laxatives!"

"Oh, yeah?" the clerk replied.  "Look at him.  He's afraid to cough."

Labor Day Joke:  I was going to tell you a Labor Day Joke, but it just didn't work.

More Holidays Today:  Today is also National Beer Lovers Day.

    - At a big beer festival in London, the heads of several major breweries decided to go out for a drink          at the local pub.  The guy from Corona tells the bartender, "Give me a Corona, the world's best              beer."  And the bartender gives him one.  The guy from Budweiser says. "I'll have the King of Beers,       a Budweiser."  And the bartender gives him one.  The guy from Coors says, "I'll have a beer made         from Rocky Mountain spring water, a Coors."  And the bartender gives him one.  Then the guy from        Guinness looks at his fellow drinkers and their orders and asks for a Coke.  The others look back at

     and ask why did not order a Guinness.  He said, "Well, if the rest of you aren't drinking real beer,             neither will I."

And today is also Buy a Book Day:

    - A man went into a  bookstore and complained, "I bought This book yesterday, Cowards in History,       and when I got home all the pages fell out.  The bookstore clerk explained, "That's because it has no        spine."

And it is also Grandma Moses Day.  there's not too many Grandma Moses jokes out there, but there are some great quotes from her, including, "Life is what you make it, always has been, always will be."  She was a pretty smart lady.

And today is National Acorn Squash Day.  Here's a few recipes for your taste buds:

    - https://www.allrecipes.com/article/beshttps://www.allrecipes.com/article/best-acorn-squash-                     recipes/t-acorn-squash-recipes/

Not to be outdone by squash, today is also National Salami Day.  It's not just for sandwiches, as these recipes can attest:

    - https://www.dufourgourmet.com/blogs/foodie-blog/ingenious-ways-to-use-salami?                                  srsltid=AfmBOoprnU__iVPWGsSFc-3B59ZA-CyafKKx4dCtBXAvrzpKYCbHFWvv

And today marks a number of observances worth celebrating:  International Day of Clean Air, Indigenous Literacy Day, National Feel the Love Day, National Grateful Patient Day, and Superhuman day  (which recognizes the in credible achievements of people with disabilities). 

Feel free to celebrate them all joyfully.

Graffiti:  One of the most cherished icons in Pensacola is the Graffiti Bridge, a tribute to free speech and expression -- one sanctioned by the city.  First built as a railroad overpass for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1888, locals and neighboring residents first began decorating the trestle as early as 1935.  Over the decades, the concrete pilings and walls evolved into a "public diary" where birthday wishes, memorials, public commentary, personal tributes, marriage proposals, local sports, and student congratulations were regularly posted.  In 2008, the Pensacola City Council officially recognized the bridge as and acceptable site for legal public expression.  I cannot tell you how much paint has covered the bridge over the decades, but typically, the artwork lasts about a day before it is painted over by a new message.

The day after Dolly Parton's death, her image took over the entire bridge in tribute.  Amazingly, it remained for there for ten days -- something unheard of for the bridge's graffiti.  It was then altered with political announcements about 9-11, project 2030, and vaccines; those announcements were up for a day before the Dolly Parton tribute was restored, adding the quotation, "Find out who you are and do it on purpose."

Eventually the Dolly mural will go away to be replaced by something meaningful, inspiring, newsworthy, or just plain tacky.  That's how things roll on the Graffiti Bridge.

But for now, let it be said that Pensacola loves Dolly.

Yes, anyone can leave a message on the Graffiti Bridge.  If you are ever in Pensacola and wish to do so, here's how:

https://thegraffitibridge.com/blogs/news/so-you-wanna-paint-the-graffiti-bridge-a-guide-to-the-ins-and-outs-of-pensacola-landmark

Relatively Speaking:  David Langford, an icon in the British science fiction field, writes (among other things) Ansible, a monthly newsletter of the field.  Alas, he had been under the weather for a week or so before issuing the September edition (#470), which explains this blunder I brought to his attention:  "Am I right in assuming that African-American bass-baritone legend Paul Robeson was the evil twin brother of Kenneth Robeson?"  All is forgiven, David; it's an easy mistake to make, the man who sang "Ol' Man River" and the creator of Doc Savage.  Now, I am imaging the greatest crossover of all time...if only...

Florida Man Woman Moos (with a side-jaunt to Aussie-land):  Justice can be swift in Florida, and sometimes it comes on four hooves, as Jennifer Anne Kaufman found out when she stole a vehicle in Seminole County:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/08/florida-seminole-county-cows-capture-suspect-jennifer-anne-kaufman

The bovines may not have acted from a sense of justice; they probably followed her, knowing that a person in their field might mean that they would be fed.

Meanwhile...a herd of breakaway cattle in Queensland, Australia, headed to the drivethrough window at a local local McDonalds.  No word on what they ordered:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8snHrBBeGS4 

Good News:  And there's always a lot of it.

• Hope for coral.    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/red-sea-coral-dying-from-heat-stress-is-being-revived-using-probiotics/
• And for salmon.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/endangered-salmon-return-to-california-rivers-in-incredible-numbers-everybodys-just-ecstatic/
• A cleaner New York City.    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/neighbors-gets-swept-up-in-mans-viral-journey-to-clean-1-nyc-street-block-every-day-for-100-days/
• In the midst of horror, hope -- 900 students saved.  https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/last-minute-flood-warning-saved-over-900-nepal-students-school-principal-said/
• Traffic pollution falls in London as children's lungs grow.    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/in-london-childrens-lungs-grow-faster-as-traffic-pollution-falls/
• Pokemon fans rally after a child is scammed.    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/pokemon-fans-rally-to-help-child-after-he-was-scammed-out-of-his-most-valuable-card/
• Teens design charity app to help deliver "pizza with a purpose."  https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/florida-teens-design-charity-app-to-help-generous-locals-deliver-pizza-for-a-purpose/
• World's oldest person turns 117.    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/worlds-oldest-person-celebrates-117-years-of-a-nonconfrontational-approach-to-life/
• "Fridge free" vaccines could save millions of wasted doses.      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/resurrecting-plant-inspires-fridge-free-vaccines-that-could-save-the-millions-of-doses-wasted-annually/
• A waterless toilet for astronauts could solve global sanitation crisis.  https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/inventor-envisioned-a-waterless-toilet-for-astronauts-realized-it-could-solve-a-global-sanitation-crisis-instead/
• Kids becoming more financially literate.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/california-became-26th-state-to-require-financial-literacy-courses-in-every-high-school/

Something To Remember:  "Love is, above all, the gift of oneself." -- Jean Anpouilh

Today's Poem:

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives might be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief.  I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light.  For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

-- Wendell Berry (1934-2026), the Kentucky farmer 

who asked us to see the world around us and savor the good.  

He will be missed.

INCOMING

Incoming:  There was a-knocking at my door and every book this side of the Mississippi walked in.  From Pensacola's Open Books Labor Day book sale to Saturday's Scratch Ankle Books sale, plus a ew stopovers at various thrift stores, there's a lot to catch up on...  

• Edward S. Aarons, Assignment Maltese Maiden.  A Sam Durrell spy-guy novel.  "Twice before Sam had crossed the infamous Madame Hung.  Each time he had endured agony, escaping at the final moment.  Last time he had finished her off -- he thought.  But apparently she was like the cat with nine lives -- and now she had kidnapped his boss, General McFee.  And without McFee the heart, the core, the brain of K section was gone.  The man who held all the top-secret, confidential, intelligence items locked in his cool, calculating, and impersonal mind was gone.  It was a crisis, a full-scale world crisis.  It was also bait...to get Sam Durrell."
• Mario Acevedo. The Undead Kama Sutra.  Humorous fantasy, the third (of seven) in a series.  "Felix Gomez returned from the war in Iraq a changed man -- once a soldier, now forever a vampire.  So the undead underworld put his skills to work as a private detective, specializing in the sordid, the sexy, and the supernatural.  After surviving aliens, nymphomaniacs, and x-rate bloodsuckers, it's high time for a vacation.  Now the aliens are back in a fiendish conspiracy with the U.S. government, and only Felix stands between them and the Earth women they covet.  But when an army hitman attacks Felix and the bodacious vampire sexpert, Carmen, not even the astonishing erotic powers of the Kama Sutra for the undead may be able to save hem."
• Peter Ackroyd, Three Brothers.  Literary novel, "An alternate autobiography, a ghost story and a murder mystery all in one slim volume." (Sunday Telegraph)  "Harry, Daniel and Sam Hanway are a trio of brothers born on a post-war council estate in Camden Town.  Marked out from the start by strange coincidence, each boy makes their own distinctive, curious path through 1960s' London.  From bustling, cut-throat Fleet Street to hallowed publishing houses, from the wealth and corruption of Chelsea to the smoky shadows of Limehouse and Hackney, this is an exploration of the city, peering down its streets, riding on its underground, and drinking in its pubs and clubs.  Everything is possible -- not only in the new freedom of the tie but also in London's timeless past.
• Steve Alten, Domain.  Thriller with science fictional elements.  "For thirty-two years archaeologist Julius Gabriel has investigated the Mayan calendar, a 2500-year-old enigma of time and space that predicts humanity will perish at the inter solstice of 2012.  Julius believes the Great Pyramid of Giza, Stonehenge, the desert drawings of Nazca, the site of Angor Wat, Teotihuacan, and the Kukulcan Pyramid in the Yucatan Peninsula -- the site of the ancient asteroid impact -- all represent ancient pieces of a global puzzle linked to the salvation of our species.  Ridiculed by his peers, Julius dies  before he can solve the doomsday prophecy.  Now, only one person can prevent our annihilation -- Julius's son, Michael, a patient locked up in a Miami mental asylum [...] Psychiatry major Dominique Vazquez reports to the Miami asylum to complete her graduate internship.  The new director assigns her to a special patient -- Mick Gabriel, a paranoid schizophrenic with a high IQ who attempts to charm her into believing his father's theory of the Apocalypse so he can escape.  What Dominique doesn't realize is that she represents Mick's last hope of saving humanity [...] As it has done for a thousand years, a serpent's shadow appears on the northern balustrade of the Kukulcan Pyramid...then as a rare galactic alignment occurs, a deep space radio transmission reaches Earth, activating the remnants of an object buried in the Gulf of Mexico.  It is the beginning of the end..."
• Dan Ames, A Hard Man to Forget:  Three Complete Reacher Books.  An omnibus of the first three Jack Reacher books, written with Lee Child's permission, by Ames:  A Hard Man to Forget, The Right Man for Revenge, and A Man Made for Killing.  These flew completely under my radar.  As far as I can tell Ames has published twenty books in the Jack Reacher Cases series, as well as four books in the Joe Reacher series, and four books in the Jack Reacher's Special Investigators series, as well as a whole lot of other novels.  With his brother Andrew taking over the reins of the original Reacher series, and with Yasmin Angoe starting a spin-off series about Frances Neagley (and an upcoming Neagley television series), it looks like Child is ready to sit back on his haunches and rake the money in.   Full disclosure:  I have no idea if Ames is worth the prive of admission, never having heard of him before, and I will probably never read these books -- but they are there, just in case,
• Ace Atkins, The Broken Place.  The third book in the Quinn Colson series.  "A year after becoming sheriff of Tibbehah County, Mississippi, Colson is faced with the return of an infamous murderer, released as part of a massive pardon by the outgoing governor.  James Dixon comes back to Jericho a changed man, preaching redemption and forgiveness.  Many people believe him -- even Colson begins to wonder -- but not the victim's family.  For them, it's a miscarriage of justice.  Another group doesn't believe Dixon -- the men in Parchmont prison who confided to him about their last job, a Wells Fargo armored-car robbery.  That money was sunk at the bottom of a Tibbehah pond, and they're sure that Dixon has returned to claim it all for himself.  There is only one thing they do about it:  break out of prison and head straight for Jericho themselves.  With Dixon, the escaped convicts, and their unknown connection to county kingpin Johnny Stagg, Colson and his deputy Lillie know  they've got their work cut out for them.  But they don't count on one more unwelcome visitor:  a tornado that touches down, creating complete havoc in the county for days...just as events come to a head.   Communications are out, the roads are impassable, and the rule of law, often tenuous, is just about to snap."  Also, The Heathens, the tenth book on the Quinn Colson series.  "Before he was Tibbehah  County Sheriff, Quinn Colson was a kid who got into a lot of trouble -- a lot of it.  So when juvenile delinquent TJ Byrd insists that she doesn't know who killed her mother, Quinn's inclined to believe her.  But no none else does -- not the town, not the local officials, nor her mother's boyfriend, and certainly not Quinn's friend and former deputy, U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil.  Tj's  no fool, and when she senses she's about to take the fall for her mother's murder, she, her  boyfriend, her best friend, and her nine-year-old brother go on the run.  As Lillie Virgil tracks the kids across a trail of burglaries, stolen cars, and even a kidnapping, Quinn sets out to find the truth.  As the bloody evidence piles up, Quinn knows someone truly evil is at work here -- and that puts TJ and her friends in more danger than they can imagine."
• Paolo Bacigalupi, Pump Six and Other Stories.  Science fiction collection with eleven stories, 1999-2008; the limited edition and e-book versions of this book contains a twelfth story.  The book won a 2009 Locus Award for Best Collection; one story won the 2013 Seiun Award for Best Translated Story; one story won the 2006 Sturgeon Award for Best Science Fiction Story; one story won a 2007 Asimov Reader's Award; one story won a 2009 Locus Award for Best Novelette; while a number of the stories have been nominated for the Locus, Locus Online, Hugo, and Nebula Awards.
• Julian Barnes, Elizabeth Finch.  Mainstream novel.  "This beautiful, spare novel of platonic unrequited love springs into being around the singular character of the stoic, exacting Professor Elizabeth Finch.  Neil, the narrator, takes her class 'Culture and Civilization,' taught not for undergraduates but for adults of all ages; we are drawn into his intellectual crush on this withholding yet commanding woman.  While other personal relationships and even his family drift from Neil's grasp, Elizabeth's application of her material to the matter of daily living remains important to him, even after her death, in a way that nothing else does.  In Elizabeth Finch, we are treated to everything we cherish in Barnes:  his eye for the unorthodox forms love can take between two people, a compelling swerve into nonfictional material (this time, through Neil's obsessive study of Julian the Apostate, following notes Elizabeth left for him to discover after her death), and the forcefully moving undercurrent of history, and biography especially, as nourishment and guide in out current lives."
• Mark Billingham,  Bloodline.  A Tom Thorne novel, the eighth (of thus far nineteen) book in the series.   "Murder squad veteran detective Tom Thorne solves the London police department's most difficult cases.  When he is called in to what seems like an ordinary domestic murder, he thinks he has caught a break,  A woman has been murdered by someone she knows.  A positive pregnancy test is found on the floor beside her.  Thorne plans to question the husband, arrest him, and return home to deal with his own deteriorating personal life.  But a mysterious sliver of bloodstained X-ray is found clutched in the victim's fist, and when similar evidence is discovered at other crime scenes around the city, Thorne realizes that this is not a simple case.  Is a serial killer at work?  The victims seem to have nothing in common but the X-rays, which begin to come together to form a terrifying picture that harkens back to the Raymond Garvey killings of the 1980s.  Garvey terrorized the women of London, killing seven in four months, and he would have killed more if he hadn't been arrested after a bar fight.   But Garvey was convicted years before.  He died in prison.  Does his legacy of terror live on?  It becomes clear that whoever the killer is, he knows his prey all too well and is moving through a list that was started long ago."
• Cara Black, Murder in the Marais.  The first novel featuring Paris private investigator Aimee Leduc.  "Aimee Leduc has always sworn she would stick to tech investigations -- no criminal cases for her.  Especially since her father, the late police detective, was killed in the line of duty.   But when an old Jewish man approaches Aimee with a top-secret decoding job on behalf of a woman in his synagogue, Aimee unwittingly takes on more than she was expecting.  When she drops off her findings at her client's house in the Marais, Paris's historic Jewish quarter, she finds the old woman strangled to death, a swastika carved on her forehead.  With the help of her partner, Rene, Aimee sets out to solve this horrendous murder, but finds herself in an increasingly dangerous web of ancient secrets and buried war crimes."  Nominated for an Anthony for best first novel.
• Ben Bova, Triumph.  Science fiction novel.  "What if...Winston Churchill had assassinated Stalin?...1945:  As the War in Europe winds to its bloody close, and a crazed Adolph Hitler awaits he end in n underground bunker in Berlin, the Allied forces -- led by FDR, Churchill, and Stalin -- look warily at the post-war world -- and at each other.  Once the war is over, who will control Berlin, as well as the future of Eastern Europe?  In the world we know, the Red Army marched on Berlin and the Cold War began.  In Triumph, however, Bova imagines another possible twist of fate, whose consequences result in both in a new world order and a gripping human drama that will keep you turning pages until the powerful conclusion.  Convinced that Stalin poses a threat to democracy as great as Hitler, Churchill launches a risky, covert operation involving a ceremonial sword, future cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, and a small dose of lethal plutonium.  Mixing startling fictional surprises with genuine historical figures such as General George S. Patton and British spy Kim Philby, Triumph is an irresistible and compelling peek at a world that might have been."
• Dorothy Bowers, Postscript to Poison.  Golden Age detective novel.  "Cornelia Lackland ruled her home with an iron fist and a firm grasp on the pocketbook.  Her late husband -- she was his second wife -- had left her in charge of his two granddaughters and his self-made fortune.  John Lackland had risen from nothing to something, only to see his own children rebel against him and make bad, impulsive marital choices.  He was determined that his granddaughters would not follow in their footsteps.  Cornelia, a former stage actress whose own past was a  bit colorful, was more than up to the task.  Jenny and Carol lived as virtual prisoners, albeit quite comfortably, in a large house filled with servants in the old cathedral town of Minsterbridge, located just thirty miles from London.  What's more, the two cousins couldn't even be sure if Mrs. Lackland's death would set them free, since the provisions of their grandfather's will were sealed.  Things came to ahead one hot summer night in the 1930s when the old lady took ill, hovered on the edge of death, and then miraculously recovered.  But the night before she was to meet her solicitor to make yet lone more change in her will, she was found dead, the apparent victim of a poisoner.  Chief'  Inspector Dan Pardoe of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate an ever-growing list of suspects."  Bowers' writing career was cut short when she died from tuberculosis at age 46 after completing only five well-regarded novels.
• "Carter Brown" (Alan G. Yates), The Ice-Cold Nude.  A Danny Boyd mystery.  "Diamonds are a girl's worst friend, that's what I always say.  and take it from me, DANNY BOYD, I'm right -- dead right.  This particular case started with a gorgeous gal and a dazzling diamond tiara -- a $100,000 fiery fascinator that any girl might be tempted with....  this particular girl wasn't.  And because she wasn't she paid for her mistake with her life.  And I almost did...with mine."  Yates was an Australian writing phenom who inked 215 Carter Brown novels and some 75 novella-length stories over a period of 30 years.  When I was in college I sometimes would read five fast and easy Carter Browns in a day -- why study when you have a pile of Carter Brown books  by your side? 
• Freeman Wills Crofts, Inspector French's Greatest Case.  Mystery classic, the first novel to feature Inspector French, who went to appear in 29 further novels and  more than three dozen short stories.  "At 10 o'clock on a dreary November night in the back streets of London's Hatton Garden, a dead man is discovered beside an open safe in the offices of a firm of diamond merchants.  Inspector Joseph French arrives to investigate -- it doesn't take him long to realize that he's up against master criminal.  But, working his way through a snarl of false clues, hidden identities and devious motives, French finds a solution."  (Well, that  blurb doesn't tell you much about a book that can be "ingenious, lucid, reasonable, intricate, and exciting," as The Daily Telegraph has it.)
• Charles de Lint, Someplace to Be Flying.  Urban fantasy.  "Lily is a photojournalist, stealing away from the music scene she usually covers to pursue bizarre rumors of 'animal people' living in the ruins of the Tombs -- the city's darkest slums.  Hank, on the other hand, knows the crumbling Tombs all too well.  This is the part of the city he calls home, creating a life and a ragtag family on streets where many fear to tread.  One night, in a  brutal incident, their lives collide -- uptown Lily and downtown Hank, each with a quest and a role to play in the street drama of the city's oldest inhabitants:  the animal people.  For the animal people walk among us.  Native Americans call them the First People, but they have never left, and they live disguised among us.  And they claim the city for their own.  Coyote the Trickster, wily, dangerous, and utterly compelling.  Jackdaw the storyteller, nursing the secret wounds of tragedy.  Raven, guarding the pot that holds the birth and destruction of life itself.  The unpredictable Fox, the deadly Cuckoos, the Wolves that prowl city streets.  And the Crow Girls, two charming young punks who delight in mischief, gossip, thievery...and who are much, much more than they seem.  Not only have Hank and Lily stumbled onto a secret, they've stumbled into a war.  But in this battle for the city's mythic soul, nothing is quite as it appears."
• Peter Dickinson, The Ropemaker.  Fantasy.  "Tilja has grown up in the peaceful Valley, which is protected from the fearsome Empire by an enchanted forest.  But the forest's power has begun to fade, and the valley is in danger.  Tilja is the youngest of four brave souls who venture into the Empire together to find the mysterious magician who can save the Valley.  and much to her amazement, Tilja gradually learns that only she, an ordinary girl with no magical powers, has the ability to protect her group and their quest from the Empire's sorcerers."  Winner of the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award.
• Brendan DuBois, Resurrection Day.  Alternate history science fiction.  "In the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis, a full-blown nuclear war erupted.  It decimated Russia and crippled the United States -- now a second-rate power dependent on European allies for survival.  Supplies are rationed.  Martial law rules.  And John F. Kennedy -- believed killed in the war -- is the most revile president in history.  In the shadow of this devasting chaos, a reporter has stumbled upon a story that'll change the course of history once again:  the murder of veteran of the '62 war.  A keeper of secrets.   The one man who knew the reality of the great war's origins, the lies about Kennedy's death, the identity of those who will kill again to keep history's secrets buried.  and the stunning truth that could give rise to America's resurrection -- or its ultimate destruction..."  This one won a 1999 Sideways Award for Best Long Form Alternate History.  DuBois, a talented two-time Shamus winner, blew his writing career after being sentenced to 3.5 to 7 years in prison in 2025 for possession of child pornography.
• George Alec Effinger, The Wolves of Memory.  Science fiction novel featuring Sandor Courane, who has appeared in a number of short stories by Effinger.  "When the bumbling idiots of the human race turned over their cares and woes to the infinitely superior mechanism of TECT, they clearly made a wise choice.  Take the case of Sandor Courane.  TECT offered to make him a college basketball star.  When it turned out he could barely dribble, TECT gave him a second chance as a science-fiction writer.  And when no one bought his books, TECT offered hm a comfortable job on the assembly line of a Japanese auto plant.  When Courane has the audacity to flunk as a screw-turner, TECT was even kind enough to send him to a rehabilitation progtam on a lovely pastoral plnet.  The end-of-the-line world called Home."
• Davis Grubb, The Night of the Hunter.  the classic nightmarish thriller.  "When Ben harper is taken to the gallows for a bank robbery killing, he leaves his young children John and Pearl to hide the $10.000.  Soon a strange preacher coms to town and claims to have known their daddy.  his knuckles are tattooed with the words 'LOVE' and 'HATE' and while he preaches to word of the Lord, darkness lurks in his heart, a knife lies in his pocket and he wants that money.  Davis Grubb's haunting Gothic masterpiece flows through the rural Depression era landscape with a lyrical magic of a fairy tale as John and his younger sister flee their malevolent hunter to a terrifying end."  Faithfully adapted for Charles Laughton's magnificent 1954 film featuring Robert Mitchem.
• Frank Gruber, The Gamecock Murders (originally published as The Scarlet Feather).  A Johnny Fletcher-Sam Cragg mystery.  " 'Something struck his arm:  there was a cutting sound and Johnny, shooting a glance down at his arm, saw that there was an eight-inch gash in the sleeve.  A gaff had cut it neatly.'  Johnny Fletcher has dodged all manner of two- and four-legged creatures in his hairbreadth career, but he really moved fast when he got penned up with a blood-crazed, steel-spurred fighting cock.  He moves almost as fast through this wild yard about poultry fanciers, blackmail and murder.  Starting off with a cold plunge into Lake Michigan (to rescue a damsel in distress, naturally), proceeding to he discovery of a corpse under a chicken coop, Fletcher and his cohort Cragg mix it up with millionaires, cops, ham-fisted farmers, and slick gamblers.  No tricks barred in this double-barreled mystery of fast talk and hard knocks."
• Mick Herron, The Last Voice You Hear.  The second in the Zoe Boehm (Down Cemetery Road) series.  "Oxford private investigator Zoe Boehm struggles with the aftereffects of her violent past as she hunts for a killer -- or has she become the hunted?  Zoe Boehm has harbored a distinct aversion to death ever since she shot the man intent on killing her.  So when Caroline Daniels takes a deadly fall in front of a train and her lover fails to turn up at the funeral, Zoe wants nothing to do with the case.   But Caroline's boss is persistent, an as Zoe attempts to unlock the secrets of a woman she's never met while in search of a man who could be anywhere, she starts to wonder if he's found her first.  And if he has, will that make her the next victim, or prove to be hdr salvation from a paralyzing fear?"
• L. Rust Hills, editor, Great Esquire Fiction:  The Finest Stories from the First Fifty Years.  Anthology with 38 stories from some of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century, only five of which are women.
• Stan Jones, Village of the Ghost Bears.  A Nathan Active mystery.  "Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active must figure out what connects a dead hunter on a remote Arctic lake with a year-old fatal plane crash in the Brooks Range and an arson at the Chukchi Recreation Center.  That fire killed eight people, including the police chief and the town's basketball star.  Active's investigation leads him to a lucrative polar-bear poaching operation and a brother an sister with an intense bond from a village famous for twins, polar bears, and schizophrenia."
• Stephen Graham Jones, The Angel of Indian Lake.  Horror novel, the third book in the Indian Lake trilogy.  "It's been four years since Jade Daniels last set foot in Proofrock, Idaho.  Since then, her reputation, and everything around Indian Lake, has changed drastically.  There's a lot of unfinished business in her hometown, from serial killers cultists to the rich trying to  buy Western authenticity.  But there's one aspect of the savage history of Proofrock, Idaho, no one's got the mettle to confront -- no one except a final girl, making her stand, this time for everything [...] It's the story of the American West written in blood.  And it's the story of one girl who doesn't know how to give up.
• Martin Limon, Jade Lady Burning.  The first novel in the George Sueno and Ernie Bascom mystery series set in 1970s South Korea.  "Almost twenty years after the end of the Korean War, the US Military is still present throughout South Korea, and tensions run high.  Koreans look for any reason to hate the soldiers who drink at their bars and carouse with their women.  When Pak Ok-suk, a young Korean woman, is found brutally murdered in a torched apartment in the Itaewon red-light district of Seoul, it looks like it might be the work of her American soldier boyfriend.  Sergeants George Sueno and Ernie Bascom,  Military Police for the US 8th Army, are assigned to the case, but they have nothing to go on other than a tenuous connection to an infamous prostitute.   Repressed resentments erupt around them, the pair sets out on an increasingly dangerous quest to find evidence that will exonerate their countryman."
• Elizabeth Linington, No Villain Need Be.  An Ivor Maddox mystery.  "The famous husband-and-wife sleuths, Sergeant Ivor Maddox and his wife, Detective Sue Maddox, both of the L.A.P.D., return again.  This time they are juggling half a dozen investigations at once.  To begin with, there is an enterprising team of daytime burglars, as well as a scandalous sex ring that is on the loose.  Fatal accidents occur that look quite suspicious, and somebody's lovely gray-hired grandmother and her two-year-old granddaughter have been brutally murdered with the murderer still unaccounted for.  Besides all the  burglaries, orgies, and murders the Maddoxes are in the midst of moving.  Sue is trying to persuade her widowed mother to come live with them when..."  (See also "Del Shannon," below.)
• Seanan McGuire, The Unkindest Tide.   An October Daye fantasy, the thirteenth in the series.  "Hundreds of years ago, the Selkies made a deal with the sea witch:  they would have the sea for as she allowed it, and when the time came, she would call in all their debts at once.  Many people assumed that day would never come.  Those people were wrong.  When the Luidaeg -- October 'Toby' Dayd's oldest and most dangerous ally -- tells her the time has come for the Selkies to fulfill their side of the bargain, and that Toby must be a part of the process, Toby can't refuse.  Literally.  The Selkies aren't the only ones in debt to the Luidaeg, and Toby has to pay what she owes like anyone else.  They will travel to the fabled Duchy of Ships and call a convocation of the Selkies, telling them to come and meet the Luidaeg's proce...or face the consequences.  Of course, nothing is that simple.  When Dianda Lorden's brother appears to arrest Dianda for treason against the Undersea, when a Selkie woman is stripped of her skin and then murdered, when everything is falling apart, that's when Toby will have to answer the real question of the hour.  Is she going to skink?  Or is she going to swim?"  
• Patricia Moyes, Johnny Under Ground.  A Henry Tibbett mystery.  "Emily Tibbett goes to her RAF reunion with an inexplicable sense of foreboding.  As a naive nineteen-year-old auxiliary officer she had fallen in love with handsome pilot 'Beau' Guest.  After the reunion, Chief Inspector Henry Tibbett suspects his wife is on the brink of uncovering a dangerous secret but he can't prevent her from delving into a past that is dark with menace."
• Kem Nunn, Tapping the Source.  Crime novel with surfers.  "People go to Huntington Beach in search of the endless parties, the ultimate highs, and the perfect waves.  Ike Tucker has come to look for his missing sister and for the three men who may have murdered her.  In that place of gilded surfers and sun-bleached blonds, Ike's search takes him on a journey through a twisted world of crazed Vietnam vets, sadistic surfers, drug dealers, and mysterious seducers.  He looks into the shadows and finds parties that drift toward pintless violence, joyless vacations, and highs you may never come down from...and a sea of old hatreds and dreams gone bad.  And if he's not careful, his is a journey from which he will never return."  This one was a finalist for the National Book Award and was the inspiration for the movie Point Break.
• "Flann O'Brien" (Brian O'Nolan [or O Nuallain], also known as "Myles na gCopaleen"). At Swim-Two-Birds.   The classic Irish novel of fantasy and farce.  "Flann O'Brien's first novel tells the story of a young, indolent undergraduate, who lives with his curmudgeonly uncle in Dublin and spends far too much time drinking with his friends.  When not drunk or in bed he likes to invent wild stories peopled with hilarious and unlikely characters -- but somehow his creations just won't do what he wants them to.  A dazzling, impressionistic jumble of farce, satire, mythology and nonsense that gives full rein to its author's dancing intellect and Celtic wit.  [It is] both a brilliant comic send-up of Irish literature and culture and a plortrayal of Dublin to compare with Joyce's Ulysses."
• Thomas Perry, Fidelity.  Thriller.  "When Phil Kramer is shot dead on a deserted suburban street in the middle of the night, his wife, Emily, is left with an emptied bank account and a lot of questions.  How could Phil leave her penniless?  What was he going to do with the money?  And, most of all, who was he he if he wasn't the man she thought she married?  Jerry Hobart has some questions of his own.  It's none of his business why he was hired to kill Phil Kramer.  But now that he's been ordered to take out Kramer's widow, he figures there's a bigger secret at work -- and maybe a bigger payoff.  As they race to find the secret Phil Kramer so masterfully hid, both Hobart and Emily must question where their true loyalties lie and how much they owe those who have been unfaithful to them."
• Tim Powers, Last Call.  Fantasy, the first in the Fault Lines trilogy.  "Set in the gritty, dazzling otherworld known as Las Vegas, Last Call tells the story of a one-eyed professional gambler who discovers that he was not the big winner in a long-ago poker game...and now must play for the highest stakes ever as he searches for a way to win back his soul."  "A novel of the supernatural and the occult that is as hard-boiled, seamy and suspenseful as the best film noir." - Tom Robbins.  This one won the 1993 World Fantasy Award for best Novel and he 1993 Locus award for best Fantasy Novel.
• Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, Diablo Mesa.  A Nora Kelly novel, the third in the series.  "Lucas Tappan, a wealthy and eccentric billionaire and founder of Icarus Space Systems, approaches the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute with an outlandish proposal -- to finance a careful, scientific excavation of the Roswell Incident site, where a UFO is alleged to have crashed in 1947.  A skeptical Nora Kelly, to her great annoyance, is tasked with the job.  Nora's excavation immediately uncovers two murder victims buried at the site, faces and hands obliterated with acid to erase their identities.  Special Agent Corrie Swanson is assigned to the case.  As Nora's excavation proceeds, uncovering things both bizarre and seemingly inexplicable, Corrie's homicide investigation throws open a Pandora's  box of espionage and violence, uncovering bloody traces of a powerful force that will stop at nothing to protect long-held secrets -- and threatens to engulf them all in an unimaginable fate."  The Preston & Child novels are one my most recent obsessions.  Case in point, Dance of Death, their sixth novel in the Pendergast series and Book 2 of the Diogenes Trilogy.  When last we left Special Agent A. X. L. Pendergast, he had been entombed, a la "The Cask of the Amontillado," for several weeks by the evil Count Fosco (borrowed from Wilkie Collins' The Lady in White) and is presumed dead.  Well, so much for presumptions! "Two brothers.  One a top FBI agent.  The other a brilliant, twisted criminal.  An undying hatred between them.  Now, a perfect crime.  And the ultimate challenge:  Stop me if you can...  Dance of Death -- Vengeance is in the blood."  Also, two standalones:  Mount Dragon and The Ice Limit.  Dragon:  "Mount Dragon:  an enigmatic research complex hidden in the vast desert of New Mexico.  Guy Carson and Susana Cabeza have come to Mount Dragon to work shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the greatest scientific minds on the planet.  Led by visionary genius Brent Scopes, their secret goal is a medical breakthrough that promises to bring incalculable benefits to the human race.  But while Scopes believes he is leading the way to a new world order, he may, in fact, be opening the door to mass human extinction.  And when Guy and Susana attempt   to stop him they find themselves locked in a frightening battle with Scopes, hiss henchmen, and the apocalyptic nightmare that science has unleashed..."  Ice:  "The largest known meteorite has been discovered, entombed in the earth for  millions of years on a frigid, desolated island off the southern tip of Chile.  At four thousand tons, this treasure seems impossible to move, a nightmare of physics requiring incredible human ingenuity.  New York billionaire Palmer Lloyd is determined to have this incredible find for his new museum.  Stocking a cargo ship with the finest scientists and engineers, he builds a flawless expedition.  But from the first approach to the meteorite, people begin to die.  A frightening truth is about to unfold:  The men and women of the Ralvaag are not taking this ancient, enigmatic object anywhere.  It is taking them."
• Peter Robinson, Many Rivers to Cross.  A DCI Alan Banks novel.  "In Eastvale, a young Middle Eastern boy is found dead, his body stuffed into a wheelie bin on the East Side Estate.  Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his team know they must tread carefully to solve this sensitive case, but tensions rise when they learn the victim was stabbed somewhere else and dumped.  Who is the boy, and where did he come from?  Then, in a decayed area of Eastvale scheduled for redevelopment, a heroin addict is found dead.  Was this just another tragic overdose, or something darker?  To prevent tensions from reaching to a boiling point, Banks must find answers quickly.  Yet just when he needs to be at his sharpest, the seasoned detective finds himself distracted by a close friend's increasingly precarious situation.  Banks needs a break -- and gets one when he finds the connection to a real estate developer who could be the key to finding the truth.  With so many loose ends dangling, there is one thing Banks is sure of -- solving the case will come at a terrible cost."
• Andrzej Sapkowski, The Tower of Swallows.  A Geralt, the Witcher, fantasy.  "The world has fallen into war.  Ciri, the child of prophecy, has vanished.  Hunted  by friends and foes alike, she has taken on the guise of a petty bandit and lives free for the first time in her life.  But the net around her is closing.  Gerralt, the Witcher, has assembled a group of allies determined to rescue her.  Both sides of the war have sent brutal mercenaries to hunt her down.  Her crimes have made her famous.  There is only one place left to run.  The tower of swallows is waiting..."  Trnslated by David French.
• John Scalzi, The Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony.  Science fiction novels in The Old Man's War series.  War:  "John Perry did two things on his seventy-fifth birthday.  First he visited his wife's grave.  Then he joined the army.  The good news is that humanity finally made it to the stars.  The bad news is that, out there, planets fit to live on are scarce -- and alien races willing to fight us for them are common.  So, we fight.  Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades:  brutal, bloody, unyielding.  Earth itself is a backwater.  The bulk of our resources is in the hands of the Colonial Defense Forces, and everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join up.  The CDF doesn't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living.  You'll be taken off Earth, never to return.  You'll serve two years in combat.  And if you survive, you'll be given a homestead of your own, on one of our hard-won planets.  John Perry is taking that deal.  He thinks he knows what to expect.  But the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine -- and what he will become is far stranger."  Ghost:  "The Ghost Brigades are the Special Forces of the Colonial Defense Forces, elite troops created from the DNA of the dead and turned into the perfect soldiers for the CDF's toughest operations.  They're young, they're fast and strong, and they're totally without normal human qualms.  The universe is a dangerous place for humanity -- and it's about to become far more dangerous.  Three races that humans have clashed with before have allied to halt our expansion into space.  Their linchpin:  the turncoat scientist Charles Boutin, who knows the CDF's biggest military secrets.  To prevail, the CDF must find out why Boutin did what he did.  Jared Dirac is the only human who can provided answers -- a superhuman hybrid, created from Boutin's DNA.  Jared's brain should be able to access Boutin's electronic memories.  But when the memory transplant appears to fail, Jared is given to the Ghost Brigade.  At first, Jared is the perfect soldier, but as Boutin's memories slowly surface, he begins to intuit the reasons for Boutin's betrayal.  As Jared desperately hunts for his 'father,' he must also come to grips with his own choices.  Time is running out:  the alliance is preparing its offensive, and some of our enemies plan worse things than humanity's mere military defeat..."  Colony:  "John Perry [the hero of Scalzi's Old Man's War] has found peace in a violent universe, living quietly with  his wife and daughter on one of humanity's many colonies.  It's a good life, yet there's something...missing.  When John and Jane are asked to lead a new colony world, he jumps at the chance to explore the universe once more.  But Perry quickly finds out that nothing is what it seems.  He and his new colony are pawns in an interstellar game of diplomacy and war between humanity's Colonial Union and a new, seemingly unstoppable alien alliance that has ordered an end to all human colonization.  As this grand gambit rages above, on the ground Perry struggles to keep the colonists alive in the face of threats both alien and familiar, on a planet that keeps its own fatal secrets.  For the survival of his colony and his family, Perry  must unravel the web of lies, half-truths, and deception spun around him and uncover the shockingly true purpose of his colony -- and fight to prevent a war that not only threatens to engulf his new home, but promises the destruction of the Colonial Union.  There are few options, and no margin for error, for Perry to keep his colony from becoming the last colony of the human race."
• "Dell Shannon" (Elizabeth Linington), With a Vengeance.  A Luis Mendoza mystery.  "The man was unusually well-dressed, his papers and his money undisturbed.  But obviously somebody had a grudge against him, for he had been neatly strangled, and left with a hand-printed card on his chest which read:  The Vengeance is Just.  That was just the beginning, and in the seven murders, or attempts at murder, which followed, there seemed not the remotest connection among the victims to provide a clue for Lieutenant Luis Mendoza and his hard-pressed colleagues at the Los Angeles Police Department..."
• Whitley Streiber, The Omega Point.  Apocalyptic novel.  "December 21, 2012, did not mark an end, but a very dangerous beginning.  The year 2012 came and went.  The world prepared itself for impending disaster -- and nothing happened.  Or so it seemed.  But by 2020, energy from a supernova is disrupting the sun.  Solar storms ravage the globe with unprecedented ferocity, and debris in the form of comets and asteroids threaten to end life on Earth.  the wealthy of the world hide in vast underground bunkers, but even they know that they cannot survive without a miracle.  It all comes down to one man -- a young psychiatrist named David Ford -- who may hold the power to save he world.   Newly employed at the extravagant Acton Clinic, Ford encounters people who seem to understand what's happening...some may even possess an extraordinary knowledge of what's to come.  One of them is the beautiful and enigmatic Caroline Light, who demands more from Ford that he could possibly give.  Another is a cunning ex-CIA operative Mack Graham, a skilled killer with questionable loyalties...December 21, 2012, was not the end.  The end is the Omega Point:  where time stops."
• "Josephine Tey" (Elizabeth McKintosh), Four, Five and Six by Tey.  Omnibus of three mysteries.  The Daughter of Time: Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant is bored while confined to bed in hospital with a broken leg.  He becomes obsessed with King Richard III and the case of the Prince in the Tower and decides to do his own historical investigation into their disappearance in 1483.  In 1990 the book was ranked as number one in The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time list by Britain's Crime Writers' Association.  The Singing Sands:  Grant's final case.  while taking an overnight sleeper to the Scottish Highlands, Grant comes across a porter trying to rouse a passenger, but the passenger is dead.  Grant continues on his way but is eventually unsatisfied when he learns that the inquest has ruled death by misadventure.  The man is finally linked to the discovery of the legendary lost city of Wabar in the Arabian desert.  A Shilling for Candles:  Grant investigates the death of film actress Christine Clay, who had instructed her lawyer to add a codicil to her will ln the day before her murder.
• Helene Tursten, Night Rounds.  An Inspector Irene Huss investigation.  "Irene Huss is a former Ju-Jitsu champion, a mother of twin teenage girls, the wife of a successful chef, and a Detective Inspector in the Violent Crimes Unit of Goteborg, Sweden.  And now she's back in the gripping follow-up to Detective Irene Huss.  One nurse lies dead and another vanishes after a local hospital is hit by a blackout.  The only witness claims to have seen Nurse Tekla doing her rounds,  but Nurse Tekla died sixty years ago.  Irene Huss of the Violent Crimes Unit has the challenge of disentangling wandering ghosts and complex human relationships to get to the bottom of this intriguing case."  Translated by Laura A. Wideburg.
• Jill Paton Walsh, The Attenbury Emeralds.  A Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane mystery, the third by Walsh.  "It was 1921 when Lord Peter Wimsey first encountered the Attenbury emeralds.  the recovery of the magnificent king-stone in Lord Attenbury's dazzling heirloom collection made headlines -- and launched a shell-shocked young aristocrat on his career as a detective.  Thirty years later, a happily married Lord Peter has just shared the secrets of that mystery with his wife, the detective novelist Harriet Vane, when the new Lord Attenbury -- grandson of Peter's first client -- suddenly seeks his help to prove who owns the gigantic emerald. As Harriet and Peter contemplate the changes that the war has wrought on English society and their own lives, Jill Paton Walsh brings us a masterful new chapter in the annals of one of the greatest detectives of all time."
• Richard S. Wheeler, The Witness.  Western.  "Amos Burch is the most charitable man in Paradise, Colorado.  As owner of the bank, several businesses, and many of the outlying ranches, he's also the richest.  Paradise owes Burch its very existence, so when his bookkeeper, Daniel Knott, discovers him in a compromising position with one of his 'clients,' he accepts his employer's offer of a promotion in exchange for his silence.  But Burch is not the benevolent philanthropist the town believes him to be.  And when Burch's wife brings forth a suit for divorce on the basis of adultery, Daniel Knott finds himself in the middle of a scandal that will affect not only his family's future, but the entire town -- and pit him against the most powerful man in paradise..."  Wheeler, who published 73 western and historical western novels, was a five-time winner of the Spur Award and the recipient of the Owen Wister Award for his lifelong contributions to Western literature.  His books are always worth picking up.

TRUNCATED BITS & PIECES

Openers:  

I'm going you tell you the real story behind Bloodrock and how we ended up with a dead man in a bathtub.  I was right there on location and saw just about everything.  More than anyone else, at least.  I'm sure you remember hearing about it, even if you are not a regular reader of the Hollywood traces.  You also probably remember that there were some questions floating around, the big one being:  Was it just an accident, or was it murder?

So I'll tell you everything I know, and then you can decide for yourself.

-- A Murder in Hollywood by Michael Crichton writing as "John Lange," 2026

Whoa, Nellie!  A new book by Michael Crichton?  The guy who's been dead for nearly eighteen year?  And writing as John Lange, the pseudonym he used when he first started publishing when he was a medical student, eventually totaling eight basically forgettable novels under that pen name?  The last being in 1972 (Binary), three years after he made his bones with The Andromeda Strain?  Yeah, that guy.  I think the dead sumbitch published it just to mess with my my mind because I had just completed earlier this year my read of all of his published books -- fiction, nonfiction, even a couple of screenplays.  Anyway, here's this new Michael Crichton book that had flown under my radar -- one I had never heard of, published this past May.

Well, there's a good reason. Evidently he wrote it back in 1973.  By then, all his pseudonymous work had been published (eight by "John Lange," one by "Jeffrey Hudson," and one collaboration published as by "Michael Douglas").  Also by then, some confusion had begun about the Lange pen name:  it turned out the John Lange was the legal name of "John Norman," the pseudonymous named used to publish a slew of best-selling incel (before that was created) fantasy novels heavy on sex and degradation.  With two bestsellers, one Edgar Award-winning novel and at least three films in the works, it was time to retire the pseudonym and the type of action-oriented novel that went with it.  So A Murder in Hollywood became a trunk novel, never seeing the light of day...presumably forever.

But, where there's a manuscript with Crichton's name on it, there is the possibility for cash...which brings us to 2026.

Don't get me wrong.  This isn't a truly bad book.  It just not a mature Michael Crichton book, heavily influenced by his time as a student author who was having an novel filmed (the Jeffrey Hudson A Case of Need, filmed as The Carey Treatment by Blake Edwards; also the same year, his collaborative novel Dealing was filmed by Paul Williams).  It's a decent, well-plotted, snarky book.  The main problem is with the title.  There is not a murder in Hollywood.  There is one in Tucson -- the dead guy in the bathtub.  But was it even a murder?  The guy slipped, fell, and hit his head.  But if it was an accident why was the bathroom completely wiped of fingerprints.  And there may not be a single murder; there may be two.  but as the second paragraph in the book said, you will have to decide for yourself.

I am glad I read it, but I sincerely hope there are no more trunk novels lying around.  This was the fifth posthumous Crichton book published, two of which were completed by other authors.

Incoming:

• Joe Abercrombie, The Devils.  Fantasy.  "Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain  a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him.  But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters.  The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures rom them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.  Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing bit their own ambitions and comfort.  With an epic, hellish journey before him, it's a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side."
• Lloyd Alexander, The Wizard in the Tree.  Juvenile fantasy.  "When Mallory notices something funny sticking out of an old oak tree, she takes a closer look -- and before she knows it, she's broken a magic spell.  Arbican the wizard has been trapped in the tree for thousands of years.  All his fellow enchanters are gone.  And so are his powers!  Will he get them back in time to save Mallory's village from greedy Squire Scrupner?"  Alexander was the author of the noted Prydain Chronicles, The Westmark Trilogy, and the Vesper Holly Adventures.
• Patrick Anderson, The Triumph of the Thriller:  How Cops, Crooks, and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction.  Nonfiction.  What Anderson thinks works and what doesn't.  The most interesting part is where he skewers, perhaps rightly so, six novels:  The Beach House by James Patterson & Peter de Jonge, Hour Game by David Baldacci, Trace by Patricia Cornwell, The Face of the Assassin  by David Lindsey, The Eleventh Commandment by Jeffrey Archer, and The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks.
• Robert Jackson Bennett, The Company Man.  Thriller.  The McNaughton Corporation:  "They built the guns that won the Great war before it even began.  They built the airships that tie the world together.  and, above all, they built Evesden -- a shining metropolis, the best that the world has to offer.  But something is rotten at the heart of the city.  Deep underground, a trolley car pulls into a station with eleven dead bodies inside.  Four minutes before, the victims were seen boarding at the previous station.  eleven men butchered by hand in the blink of an eye.  All are dead.  And all are union.  Now, one man, Cyril Hayes, must fix this.  There is a dark secret behind the inventions of McNaughton and a was brewing between the executives and the workers.  The truth must be discovered before the whole city burns.  Caught between the union and the company, between the police and the victims, Hayes must uncover the mystery before it kills him."  Also, Mr. Shivers.  Thriller, Bennett's first novel.  "It is the time of the Great Depression.  Thousands have left their homes looking for a better life, a new life.  But Marcus Connelly is not one of them.  He searches for one thing, and one thing only:  revenge.  Because out there, riding the rails, stalking the camps, is the scarred vagrant who murdered Connelly's daughter.  No one knows him, but everyone knows his name:  Mr. Shivers."
• "Benjamin Black" (John Banville), The Black-Eyed Blonde.  Mystery, an authorized sequel to Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novel The Long Goodbye, and the basis of the basis of the 2022 Liam Neeson film Marlowe (not to be confused with the 1969 James Garner film Marlowe, which was based on Chandler's novel The Little Sister).  "It is the early 1950s. Marlowe is as restless and lonely as ever, and business is a little slow.  Then a new client is shown in:    young, beautiful, an expensively dressed, she wants Marlowe o find her former lover, a man named Nico Peterson.  Marlowe sets off on his search, but almost immediately discovers that Peterson's disappearance is merely the first in s series of bewildering events.  Soon he is tangling with one of Bay City's richest families and developing a singular appreciation for how far they will go to protect their fortune."  Black borrowed the title from an otherwise unrelated Marlowe short story by written by Benjamin M. Schutz for the 1998 tribute anthology Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe:  A Centennial Celebration, edited by Bryon Preiss.  I am hopeful that Black's book will read much better than the two previous authorized Marlowe books by Robert B. Parker.
• Steven Brust, Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille.  Science fiction.  "Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille is a great place to visit, bit it tends to move around a bit -- from Earth to the Moon to Mars to another solar system -- and always just one step ahead of whatever mysterious conspiracy is reducing whole worlds to volcanic ash.  Still, Cowboy Feng's is worth tracking down.  Not only does it dish up the best matzo ball soup and Irish music in the known cosmos,  but it may be humanity's last hope for survival..."
• Michael Cadnum, Daughter of the Wind.  Young adult historical adventure novel.  "Hallgerd is the seventeen-year-old daughter of the Norwegian village leader.  A group of Danes, acting under the orders of a powerful, warring-king's daughter, kidnap her and intend to marry her to this noblewoman's son.  After a sympathetic young Dane helps her to escape, Hellgerd avenges her kidnapping by setting fire to the town and steals a small rowboat.  As she is rowing through the marsh, she meets Guk, a young hunter, along with a young blacksmith from Hellgerd's village who has come to rescue her.
• Larry Correia & Kacey Ezell, editors, Noir Fatale.  Original science fiction and fantasy anthology with thirteen tales of dangerous female archetypes.  Authors include Christopher L. Smith & Michael J, Ferguson, David Weber, Kacey Ezell, Steve Diamond, Griffin Barber, Hinkley Correia, Laurell J. Hamilton, Alistair Kimble, Sarah A. Hoyt, Mike Massa, Patrick M. Tracy, Robert Buettner, and Larry Correia.
• Matt Dinniman, Dungeon Crawler Carl.  Yeah, the best-selling science fantasy Lit RPG novel that has spawned seven (thus far) sequels.  Following the destruction of most of the world, Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, are force to enter "the World Dungeon, an 18-level dungeon crawl borrowing ideas from tabletop role-playing and video games."  In this first book, Carl and Donut are only on the first and second levels.  The book has been nominated for an Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the series is overwhelmingly popular.  This was Amy's choice for the upcoming family book club.  I may or may not have the fortitude to complete the series.
• Stephen R. Donaldson, The King's Justice.  Collection of two fantasy  novellas.  "In 'The King Justice,' a stranger dressed kin black arrives in the village of Settle's Crossways, following the scent of a terrible crime.  He even calls himself 'Black,' though most certainly that is not his name.  While the desire of the inhabitants of quiet villages to cooperate with strangers is not common in their land, people find that they have a surprising urge to cooperate with this stranger.   But this gift will not be enough to protect him as he discovers the nature of the evil concealed in Settle' Crossways.  In 'The Augur's Gambit,' a daring plan is created by Mayhem Gordian, Hieronomer to the Queen of Indemnie -- a plan to save his Queen and his country.  Gordian has the gift of reading entrails, and in the bodies of chickens, lambs, piglets, and one stillborn human infant he sees the same message:  The island nation of Indemnie is doomed.  But even in the face of certain destruction a man may fight, and the Hieronomer is loyal to his Queen -- and to her only daughter."
• David Drake, The Far Side of the Stars.  Military science fiction novel, the third in  the RCN series with Lt. Daniel Leary.  "While the Republic of Cinnabar is at peace with the Alliance, warriors like Lt. Daniel Leary and Signals Officer Adele Mundy must find other work -- like escorting a pair of wealthy nobles on an expedition to the back of beyond!  The Princess Cecile, the corvette in which they carve their reputations in letters of fire, has been sold as a private yacht, but she still has her guns, her missiles, and her veteran crew.  Daniel and Adele will need all of those things as they face winged dragons, an Alliance auxiliary cruiser, jealous lovers, and a mysterious oracle which really does foresee the future.  That won't be enough, though, when they penetrate a secret Alliance base and find a hostile fleet ready for a war that will sweep Cinnabar out of a strategically crucial arm of the galaxy.  Preventing that will involve skill, courage, and more luck than a sane man could even pray for; and it will require a space battle on a scale that a tiny corvette like the Princess Cecile has no business  being involved in."
• Loren D. Estleman, The Branch and the Scaffold and Billy Gashade.  Omnibus of two westerns.  Branch:  "Based on the true story of the West's legendary Hanging Judge!  For two decades, notorious federal judge Isaac Parker's stern and implacable justice brought law and order to the West...and made him plenty of enemies.  Over the years, he and his marshals ran up against colorful and dangerous outlaws, including the notorious Dalton Gang; Belle Starr, the Bandit Queen; the  murderous Cherokee Bill; and Ned Christie."  Gashade:  "From the ravages of the Civil War to the early years of the twentieth century, a piano player wanders the old west, singing for his supper in saloons and bawdy houses.  Along the way, he meets famous people, such as Frank and Jesse James, Oscar Wilde, and William 'Billy the Kid' Bonney, and finds that they, and others, were neither as bad nor as good as their reputations suggested."
• Bill Fawcett, editor, Bolos Book 5:  Cold Steel.  Science fiction; the cover and title page proclaim this to be "Created by Keith Laumer"; Fawcett is only given credit (in smaller type on the title page and the copyright page -- such is marketing.  Bolos are giant, almost unstoppable, war tanks controlled by artificial intelligence; they never surrender.  This volume includes a novella by J. Steven York & Dean Wesley Smith, and a full novel by Linda Evans.
• Steve Frazee, Nights of Terror.  Collection of eight western pulp stories, seven of them from 1951 to 1959.  Frazee always provided a good read.
• Alasdair Gray, Poor Things.  Fantasy novel, subtitled "Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer."   "In the 1880s in Glasgow, Scotland, medical student Archibald McCandless finds himself enchanted with the intriguing creature known as Bella Baxter.  Supposedly the product of the fiendish scientist Godwin Baxter, Bella was resurrected for the sole purpose of fulfilling the whims of her benefactor.  As Archibald's desire turns to obsession, his motives to free Bella ae revealed  to be as selfish as those of Godwin, who claims her body and soul.  But Bella has her own passions to pursue.  Passions that take her to aristocratic casinos, low-life Alexandria, and a Parisian bordello, reaching an interrupted climax in a Scottish church.  Exploring her station as a woman in the shadow of the patriarchy,  Bella knows it is up to her to free herself -- and to decide what meaning, if any, true love has in her life."   The book won both the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Whitbread Award in 1992.  A 2023 film adaptation starred Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe; the film won the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice Film Festival, as well as four Academy Awards.
• G. T. Karber, Murdle Jr.:  Curious Crimes for Curious Minds.  Forty puzzle mysteries for young readers.
• Elmer Kelton, Buffalo Wagons and Cloudy in the West.  Omnibus of two western novels from a master of the genre.  Buffalo:  "For gage Jameson, the summer of 1873 has been a poor hunt.  A year ago, he felled sixty-two buffalo in one stand, but now the great Arkansas River herd is gone, like the Republican River herd before it.  In Dodge City, old hide hunters speak in awe of a last great herd to the south, but no hunter who values his scalp dares ride south of the Cimarron and into Comanche territory -- none but Gage Jameson."  Cloudy:  :In the Texas backlands of 1885, twelve-year-old Joey Shipman's father dies under mysterious circumstances.  After the death of a second man -- a farmhand and friend -- and another 'accident' that almost takes 
  Joey's life, the boy runs away and joins forces with his only kin, Beau Shipman, a drunk and a jailbird.  Beau, a San Antonio prostitute, an outlaw, and a sheepman become Joey's unlikely partners as the boy is trailed by the murderous Meacham, who is in league with Joey's stepmother in a scheme to take over the Shipman farm."
• J. A. Kornrath, Origin.  Horror/thriller.  "In 1906, a crew of workers at the Panama Canal unearthed something that could not be identified or explained.  Something sinister.  And very much alive...One hundred years later, a team of scientists gather at an underground facility in New Mexico to determine what this being is -- the most amazing discovery in the history of mankind -- and how it has managed to survive.  A biologist will examine its structure.   A veterinarian will study its behavior.  A linguist will translate its language.  But even the greatest minds in the world can not answer one inescapable question:  Could this ancient creature, this mockery of God and nature, actually be the ancient demon known as .. the Beat?"
• "Emma Lathan"  (Mary Jane Latsis & Martha Henissart), three John Putnam Thatcher financial mysteries.  By Hook or By Crook.  "A rivalry sealed in blood triggers a subtle and deadly revenge plot that links a powerful business and a vast estate to a double murder...John Putnam Thatcher is faced with two murders -- the result of a bitter family feud.  John Putnam Thatcher knows who the  murderer is -- but has  no proof.  John Putnam Thatcher remembers the words of a man about to be murdered.  John Putnam Thatcher is dangerously close on the tracks of a murderer." Green Grow the Dollars.  'John Putnam Thatcher's out in the field -- to harvest a crop of patent thievery, corporate scandal, and million-dollar death!  All because a newly developed tomato promises a six-month yield -- guaranteed to revolutionize agribusiness with juicy new profit.  Until the patent rights, claimed by Sloan Guaranty Trust's respected client, are challenged in court by an upstart seed company.  After one murder and a second attempt, Thatcher's got only one chance -- to find the killer, insure the patent, and nip the case in the bud!"  Murder Against the Grain.  "Before John Putnam Thatcher can recover the  missing million dollars the Russians have made as a down payment on wheat, he has to answer some rather peculiar questions:  - What was the Cuban Navy doing in New York harbor?  - Why was the Leningrad Symphony practicing on a basketball court?  - How on earth did a performing troupe of Russian otters that drink only vodka, dance the mazurka, and merrily assemble a three-stage rocket get into the picture?  -And, above all, who is the grim reaper dead set on MURDER AGAINST THE GRAIN?"
• Henning Mankell, The Man from Beijing.  A standalone thriller that spans two centuries and four continents.  "In the far north of Sweden a small, quiet village has been almost entirely wiped out by a mass murderer.  The lonley clue left at the scene is a red ribbon.  Among the victims are the grandparents of Judge Birgitta Roslin, who sets out to find the killer.  Despite being brushed off by the police, Birgitta is determined to prove that he murders wee not some random act of violence  but are part of something far more dark and complex.  Her investigation leads to the highest echelons of power and into the recesses of history where the seeds of evil deeds were planted."  Translated by Laurie Thompson.
• Tom Piccirilli, A Choir of Ill Children.  Southern Gothic.  "Kingdom Come is a decaying backwater that draws the lost, the ill-fated, and the damned.  Ever since his mother's disappearance and his father's suicide, Thomas has cared for his three  brothers -- cojoined triplets with one shared brain -- and overseen the town's only industry, The Mill.  The superstitious townsfolk look to him with a mix of fear and awe.  But Thomas suspects that not even he can protect them from the evil that's coming.  In this lyrical tale of loss and redemption, Thomas will have to face down his own tormented past if he's to stop damnation itself from conquering Kingdom Come."
• Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, The Cabinet of Curiosities.  An Special Agent Pendergast novel, the third to be published.  An ancient mass grave is discovered as workmen prepare for a new skyscraper.  The bodies link back to Dr. Enoch Leng, a distant relative of Pendergast's, and a man who may still be alive after a century and a quarter.  We are also introduced to Constance Green, who may also be immortal and who supposed threw her baby overboard during a transatlantic crossing, and to Nora Kelly, the anthropologist who would soon have her own series from the authors.
• "J. D. Robb" (Nora Roberts), Betrayal in Death, Judgment in Death, Promises in Death, and Random in Death.  Entries in the author's lengthy futuristic romance/police procedural series featuring Lieutenant Eve Dallas.  Betrayal:  It's Eve against Sly Yost, a virtuoso of music and murder and a hitman for the elite.  But there's also an unknown person involved, and it might just be Rourke, Eve's husband.  Judgment;  A cop is bludgeoned to death and his hidden secrets lead Eve to a vice-ridden private club.  Promises:  This time Eve comes face-to-face with a cop killer.  Random:  An aspiring seventeen-year-old musician has been injected with poison while at a nightclub; Eve fears there will be more deaths to come.  I started reading this series in order a few months ago and have read the first seven books so far; there are currently 63 novels  in the series so I have a long way to go.
• John Saul, Perfect Nightmare.  Horror novel.  "If you open your house to strangers, who knows what might come in.  And what they might be after.  Or whom.  Now, ponder the unthinkable and surrender to your darkest dread, as sinister storyteller extraordinaire John Saul weaves a heat-stopping tale of lurking terror and twisted intent.  Every parent's nightmare becomes reality for Kara Marshall when her daughter, Lindsay, vanishes from her bedroom during the night.  The police suspect the Mary Jangirl is just another moody teenage runaway, angry of behind left behind her school and friends because her family is moving.  But Lindsay's recent eerie claim -- that someone invaded her room when the house was opened to prospective buyers -- drives Kara to fear the worst:  a nameless, faceless stalker has walked the halls of her home in search of more than a place to live.  Patrick Shields recognizes Kara's pain-- and carries plenty of his own since he lost his wife and two children in a devastating house fire.   But more than grief draws Patrick and Kara together.  He, too, senses the hand of a malevolent stranger in this tragedy.  And as more people go missing from houses for sale, Patrick's suspicion, like Kara's, blooms into horrified certainty..."  Another riff on Saul's patented children in jeopardy theme.
• David G. Smith, Arcane Arts and Cold Steel:  Writing Sword-and-Sorcery Fiction.  This book "teaches how to write sword-and-sorcery by breaking it down to its working parts.  Drawing on a century of fiction -- from the foundations laid down by Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber, to the gritty reinventions of Karl Edward Wagner and Charles Saunders, and into the 'New Edge' renaissance pioneered by Howard Edward Jones -- Smith explains how the form achieves its distinctive power on the page."  I was heavily into the genre many years ago but have not kept up with the latest developments and was interested in seeing what I might have missed.
• Nancy Springer, The Case of the Missing Marquess.  The first of ten books in the YA Enola Homes series about the 14-year-old sister of Sherlock Holmes.  "When Enola Holmes, sister to the detective Sherlock Holmes, discovers her mother has disappeared, she quickly sets off to find her in London -- but nothing can prepare her for what awaits.  For when she arrives, she finds herself involved in the kidnapping of a young marquess, and must flee the murderous villains and elude her shrewd older brothers -- all while trying to piece together clues to her mother's disappearance.  Amid all the chaos, can Enlola find he marquess and her mother?"  Nominated for an Edgar for Best Juvenile Mystery in 2007.  The book was adapted for the 2023 film Enola Holmes, the first of three films based on the series and starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter. 
• Helen Tursten, Winter Grave.  An Embla Nystrom Investigation.  "When a little girl in the small town of Stromstrad disappears weeks before Christmas, suspicion falls on the teenage loner who last drove her home after school.  But detectives can hardly get a word out of him.  Soon, a second child disappears, and a police officer is found dead.  Detective Inspector Embla Nystrom has just returned to work after her brush with a killer, and as she searches for the missing children, she can't help but think back to the disappearance of her own childhood best friend.  could the incidents be linked?  Embla must find answers before the parents of Stromstrad take matters into their own hands."  Tursten is also the author of the Irene Huss mysteries.
• David Weber, The Honor of the Queen.  Military SF novel, the second of fourteen novels in the Honor Harrington series.  "It's hard to give peace a chance when the other side regards war as he necessary prelude to conquest, and a sneak attack is the best means to that end.  That's why the Kingdom of Manticore needs allies against the so-called 'Republic' of Haven -- an the planet Grayson is just the right strategic place to make a very good ally indeed.  But Her Majesty's Foreign Office had overlooked a 'minor cultural difference' when they chose Honor Harrington to carry the flag:  women on the planet Grayson are without rank or rights; Honor's very presence is an intolerable affront to every male on the planet.  At first Honor doesn't take it personally; where she comes from, gender discrimination is barely a historical memory, right up there in significance with fear of the left-handed.  But in time such treatment as she receives from the Graysonites does become wearing, and Honor would withdraw if she could -- but then Grayson's fratricidal sister planet attacks without warning and she must stay and prevail, not just for honor's honor, but for her sovereign's, for THE HONOR OF THE QUEEN."
• Martha Wells, The Emilie Adventures.  Omnibus of two young adult novels.  Emilie and the Hollow World.  "Running away from home and stowing away on the wrong ship, Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use an experimental engine to journey to the interior of the planet.  When the ship becomes damaged on arrival and evidence points to sabotage, they encounter the treacherous Lord Ivers, along with a strange new race.  Can Emilie and her newfound friends possibly reach the surface world again?"  Emilie and the Sky World. "When Emilie arrives in Silk Harbor, the eminent Professor Abindon warns her of something strange an potentially deadly in the sky.  On further investigation they realize it's a ship from another aetheric plane.  Join Emilie as she navigates the strange landscapes of the upper air, and the deadly menace that inhabits the sky world."  Wells is best-known as the author of the successful Murderbot Diaries.

"It's Florida, Jake.":

• Allie, a local "emotional support" alligator beloved by many has been murdered.  Allie resided in a fenced off and locked water retention pond in Garcon Point in Milton, Santa Rosa County.  Residents said that Allie had lived there for year and was no danger to anyone because the six-foot-tall fence was locked at all times.  One neighbor, Jennifer Dory, told reporters, "She was a danger to no one...little did I know that she was in danger."  Three men have been charged with entering the area, capturing Allie, binding her, and killing her with a power drill through the skull.  Include former U.S. Navy Seal Kevin "Dauber" Lacz (44), Richard Reder (57, and Jason Griffin (49).  The three men face second-degree misdemeanor "conservation" charges of violating Florida's administrative code on taking and disposing of nuisance reptiles. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said that the three were not legally authorized to determine whether Allie was a nuisance because none had valid alligator nuisance permits.  Some neighbors and wildlife advocates are demanding stiffer penalties for the three, wondering whether the light charges are due to Lacz's status as a decorated former SEAL who once worked with noted sniper Christopher Kyle.  The attorney for the three said that they had long been authorized to perform alligator removals but that their licenses had all expired.  Residents meanwhile consider the act to have been inhumane and unnecessary.